By Temple Ligon

Special to the Chronicle

A new bridge over the Congaree River

would give us the world's first triumphal bridge in the modern era.

The idea comes from the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, Italy, and London Bridge before the fire of 1666.

Included on The Bridge connecting Columbia with Lexington County is an opera house and ballet theater.

Opera houses are outrageously expensive. When the Koger Center opened in 1989, the cost was about $7,000 a seat.

Artist Jasper Johns needs to have a place on The Bridge. Once he understands how his personal collection can take advantage of visitors on The Bridge, he can discuss locating his collection here, where he went to A. C. Moore and attended USC, his only formal art education.

He has complained that little kids can't afford to visit his exhibitions. With income on The Bridge, he might take another look.

Hovering over the Congaree, The Bridge's lowest level is parking, an income stream collected from paying visitors. Parking fees can make the first level a real estate free site over which stores, offices, hotel and high-end housing can be built less expensively than on land.

Private development pays property taxes. In its own tax-increment bond finance district, property taxes can be dedicated to pay for the opera house, Workshop Theater, Children's Theater, Jasper Johns collection and SC Athletic Hall of Fame.

The 350-room hotel can be a 5-star property paying its share of property taxes.

The hotel will be named for Thomas Jefferson and its architecture include a Pantheon at half-scale like Jefferson's Pantheon on the academic quadrangle at UVA.

Luxury housing on The Bridge will pay owner-occupied property taxes at an assessment of 4%. Apartments – 350 of them at 1,000 square feet each – will pay 6%.

At about $70 million in taxable value, the apartments alone can be expected to pay $1.4 million in annual property taxes.

Temple Ligon is an out-of-the-box thinker, planner and architect.